Evans emerges as top target for Manziel, A&M

Mike Evans led the Aggies with 82 catches for 1,105 yards in 2012. He also scored five touchdowns.

Mike Evans led the Aggies with 82 catches for 1,105 yards in 2012. He also scored five touchdowns.

Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle

Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle

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Mike Evans led the Aggies with 82 catches for 1,105 yards in 2012. He also scored five touchdowns.

Mike Evans led the Aggies with 82 catches for 1,105 yards in 2012. He also scored five touchdowns.

Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle

Evans emerges as top target for Manziel, A&M

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COLLEGE STATION — Johnny Manziel estimated about 1,000 students gathered courtside at Texas A&M's recreation center recently to watch he and receiver Mike Evans play some basketball.

Plenty saw a Heisman Trophy winner in action on the hardwood, of course, but certainly a fair share also kept their eyes on the “two” in perhaps the Aggies' top one-two offensive punch since running back John David Crow and fullback Jack Pardee, both All-Americans in the mid-1950s.

“One of the great things that came out of the Junction days,” Pardee once told me for a book, “was the belief everyone had in each other.”

It's the same type of belief Evans and Manziel have developed in one another after they both redshirted in 2011, and stunningly emerged as two of the best in the nation at their respective positions last season.

“We were on scout team together in (2011) and had a lot of fun,” Evans said. “We just have a good connection.”

Ask Alabama about that connection — or most anyone else en route to the Aggies' 11-2 finish in their first season of the Southeastern Conference. Evans, best known for basketball at Galveston's Ball High School, led the Aggies with 82 catches for 1,105 yards, both ranking second all-time in school single-season history.

He also scored five touchdowns while fighting through leg injuries that caused him to occasionally limp off the field, only to soon limp back on. Asked what he can do if completely healthy this season?

“Biletnikoff,” Evans simply said of aiming to earn the nation's top receiving award.

This spring, coach Kevin Sumlin is experimenting a bit with the 6-foot-5 Evans playing inside receiver as well as on the outside, where he made his mark last season.

“It benefits him, and it benefits the rest of the receivers by getting them reps at his position,” Sumlin said. “There are different types of routes when you move inside and dealing with linebackers and other things. From that standpoint, he's improving.”

One thing hasn't changed for Evans despite playing multiple positions: the amount of balls lobbed his way from his basketball buddy.

“Most guys like it if you move them around — and you keep throwing them the ball,” Sumlin said.

With a final week of spring drills left, capped by the Maroon & White game April 13, Evans believes he'll ultimately wind up mostly at his old spot when the season kicks off at home Aug. 31 against Rice.

While tall receivers don't always work out — 6-4 senior Nate Askew of Madison High has shifted to linebacker in search of playing time — the Aggies stand the chance of trotting out a neck-arching arsenal at times this season. Incoming freshman Ricky Seals-Jones, one of the nation's top recruits, is 6-5. Redshirt freshman Ed Pope is 6-4, and freshman mid-term enrollee Ja'Quay Williams is 6-3.

“You have advantages going against a smaller defensive back, when it comes to jump balls and blocking and things like that,” Evans said.

Speaking of blocking (out) ... so who wins a one-on-one basketball game between Evans and the 6-1 Manziel?